Richard Beaucher

BIOGRAPHY

Richard Beaucher is an American artist of French ancestry. As with other notable painters, in earliest childhood his attention was drawn to open meadows and the salty coastlines, and his hands searched for any materials with which to sketch and paint whatever appeared in his mind's eye.

Richard came of age in and around the seaside towns along Cape Ann, Massachusetts, where he spent countless hours observing the effects of light on varying seas: churning, turbulent oceans; rhythmic, patterned waves; the textures of foam that waves deposit while stretching towards shore through the sand.

Many of his highly prized paintings show a masterful appreciation for the dynamics of light on the multi-colors and movements of varying shapes of waves and how they enrich the horizons. His sea paintings draw viewers directly into the heart of the water's actions, to appreciate its mysteries and multiple dimensions. The sea becomes the centerpiece of these canvases, with ships and figure as supporting onlookers.

Richard's portraiture and figure painting is also highly prized. His commisions of children, daughter and wives grace the walls of chosen homes: in Milan, Forte di Marmi, Cap Ferrat, the Engadine and from New England to coast of California in the US. His fascination with portrait painting began with the work of John Singer Sargent during months spent studying the master's techniques in Boston museums. Another major source of inspiration occurred while sketching the changes in bone structure and facial features of his three daughters as they transformed from small girls to yound women. His portrait scenes; whether of multiple children on the beach, studying flowers in a field, or of a self-conscious young girl, overdressed by her proud mother for a holiday, each convey a mood in a moment that transcends even the expressive faces and lithe bodies of his commissioned subjects.

Richard is living in West Palm Beach and a work on a new series of large scale seascapes. When recently asked where in the entire world he would most prefer to live, he whimiscally replied, "inside the Musee d'Orsay". Perhaps one day his paintings will.